Acceptability and use of a virtual support group for HIV-positive youth in Khayelitsha, Cape Town using the MXit social networking platform

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Médecins Sans Frontières supports human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected youth, aged 12–25 years, at a clinic in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Patients are enrolled in youth clubs, and provided with a virtual chat room, using the cell-phone-based social networking platform, MXit, to support members between monthly/bimonthly club meetings. The acceptability and uptake of MXit was assessed. Methods: MXit was facilitated by lay counsellors, was password protected, and participants could enter and leave at will. Club members were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires and participate in two focus-group discussions. Results and discussion: In total, 60 club members completed the questionnaire, and 12 participated in the focus groups. Fifty-eight percentage were aged 23–25 years, 63% were female and 83% had a cell phone. Sixty percentage had used MXit before, with 38% having used it in the past month. Sixty-five percentage were aware of the chat-room and 39% knew how to access it. Thirty-four percentage used the chat-room at least once, 20% had visited the chat-room in the past month, and 29% had used MXit to have private conversations with other club members. Fifty-seven percentage used the chat-room to get advice, and 84% of all respondents felt that offering a service outside the youth club meetings was important and would like to see one to continue. The cost of using social media platforms was an issue with some, as well as the need for anonymity. Preference for other platforms, logistical obstacles, or loss of interest contributed to non-use. Conclusions: Reported usage of the MXit chat-room was low, but participants indicated acceptance of the programme and their desire to interact with their peers through social media. Suggestions to improve the platform included accessible chat histories, using more popular platforms such as Facebook or WhatsApp, and to have topical discussions where pertinent information for youth is provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• HIV
• mHealth
• communication technology
• social networking
• cellular phones
• self-help groups

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the city of Cape Town Health department for allowing us to implement the project at the Site C Youth Clinic. Additionally, we would like to thank the youth of the Site C youth club for participating, and the counsellors for contributing to the running of the Khaya HIV Positive support group.

RH contributed to conception, design, data acquisition, interpretation, and co-drafted the paper. GP contributed to conception, design, analysis, interpretation, and co-drafted the paper. WB performed all the FGDs and qualitative analysis. BH contributed to drafting of paper and analysis of results. CM contributed to conception, design, interpretation, drafted ethics protocol, and co-drafted the paper. LW contributed to conception, design, critical review of paper, and approved for publication. DH contributed to drafting and critical review of paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Damian Hacking http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2187-0526